Castles & Cottages

Sold!

By Elsa Brenner

Got an expensive home to sell? Good. The high end of the market is showing new signs of life while sales at the low- and mid-range of the price spectrum remain sluggish. Here are two top-of-the-line houses that sold recently.

This home came on the market at $8,250,000, quickly received an offer for $7.8 million, and sold without further ado. Nestled amid English gardens, it has five bedrooms and four full-and four half- baths, a 4,000-bottle wine cellar, a pool house with rooftop dining, and a dance terrace, and garages for seven cars…not to mention a three-bedroom guest cottage. Its private perch overlooking a trout-stocked river proved irresistible, according to Dowdle, as did the home’s proximity to Bedford Village.

Tucked along a winding neighborhood road, this four-bedroom, five-bath home was built by Lewis Bowman, a renowned architect during the 1920s, who built what were known as “stockbroker Tudors” in Bronxville. Collins calls it “an architectural treasure. The most recent homeowner restored it magnificently with modern amenities, while maintaining the home’s original personality."

A 7,800-Square-Foot Spec Home

No one’s building spec houses in this market, right? Wrong! The partners in the Port Chester-based Estate Services, a development team, is building a home on Heathcote Drive in Chappaqua. Charles Reis and Gilbert Araujo, both from Brazil, are crafting a five-bedroom, five-bath (plus two half baths) brick house with a breathtaking circular staircase. Reis and Araujo say they were able to take on this project only because they were able to get financing from a satisfied customer: investment banker Barry Delman, whose house they built nine years ago—right next door. Delman subdivided his five-acre lot, set aside two acres for the new house, and voilà! It’s listed at $3.145 million by Linda Grant Sharp of Houlihan Lawrence’s Chappaqua office (914) 238-4766, ext 322.